Opinion

Good morning, the children are all sleeping so I’m seizing some quiet moments to get in touch with you. I’m writing in response to Norma, from London, Ohio, who wrote that she would be interested in hearing how I began my walk with the Lord.

The Reagan Administration’s 1980s crazy talk of “winning” nuclear war with “only” 20 million US dead produced a lot of anti-nuclear activism — all over the world. In Europe, hundreds of thousands marched against the placement of US Cruise and Pershing II missiles in NATO countries.

The trick-or-treaters lucked out on Halloween this year. In a period of cooler than usual weather, a couple of warmer days allowed them to scurry from door to door and show off their costumes without bundling up in winter coats (as long as they carried umbrellas).

If you cook for long enough sooner or later something will go wrong. The Hollandaise sauce will break or the famous “Nanna candy” will break and ooze butter. The list of what can happen is almost endless.

My office recently hosted the fourth annual “Women’s Leadership Summit: Together We Rise” at Xavier University, where we joined several southwest Ohio business and community partners to bring together more than 600 women who are lifting up their communities in southwest Ohio and playing leadership roles around the state.

It is difficult to keep my head from exploding with each new day’s political developments. So now Rod Rosenstein is quitting or may be fired, leaving Mueller’s Russia investigation in grave jeopardy. Or maybe not. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces an increasing number of allegations of sexual misbehavior which may derail his nomination to the high court. Or maybe not. Trump addresses the United Nations and gravely blames all the world’s ills on Iran. Sounds like a recipe for a Trumped-up invasion/October surprise. Or maybe not. In any case the waves of breaking news wash over us with relentless ferocity, keeping us locked in hypnotic distraction.

It’s Sunday afternoon and were are cruising down Interstate 70, heading for Hocking Hills in Ohio. We have another 230 miles until our arrival. Yes, we’re traveling again. We’re taking the whole family; there was no one we wanted to leave back with a babysitter, so all seven of us packed up for our three-day trip to Daniel’s family gathering in a large cabin tucked into the hills of Logan, Ohio.